Components or parts for various machines and mechanical systems may be built using additive manufacturing systems. Additive manufacturing systems may build such components by continuously layering powder material in predetermined areas and performing a material transformation process, such as sintering, on the powder material. The material transformation process may alter the physical state of the powder material from a granular composition to a solid material to build the component. The components built using the additive manufacturing systems have nearly identical physical attributes as conventional components typically made by performing machining processes on stock material.
Conventional additive manufacturing systems build these components on large, solid build plates. These conventional build plates are often made of two inches of solid metal, for example stainless steel. Aside from being heavy, cumbersome and expensive to initially manufacture, additional costs are typically associated with the use of conventional build plates by the additive manufacturing systems. For example, after a component is built on and removed from the conventional build plate, the build plate must undergo additional processing. Specifically, the build plate must be machined (e.g., resurfaced, planed, milled and the like) before being utilized again by the additive manufacturing system to build another component. The required machining after every component build is expensive and typically requires the build plate to be sent away, which can affect the production time of components when only one or a few build plates are accessible to be used by the additive manufacturing system. Additionally, every time the build plate is machined, the operational life of the build plate is decreased, and the build plate will eventually need to be replaced.